Such a Nice Little Town
by writerbot5000
Summary: Something odd is going on at McKinley High. One by one students are undergoing drastic and inexplicable personality changes. Will Lindsay and Kim be able to uncover the truth? Or are they doomed to fall victim to the mysterious force?
1. Chapter 1

A hand shook Lindsay's shoulder and a voice whispered, "Wake up!"

"What the hell?" Lindsay said. Or tried to say. It came out rather muffled due to the hand across her mouth. She flailed her arm in the direction of her assailant as her eyes shot open.

"Jesus," her assailant swore.

"Kim? What the fuck!" It was too dark in her room to make out any details, but she would know that voice anywhere.

"Keep your voice," Kim whispered again. "You'll wake your parents!"

Lindsay sat up, reached over and flicked on the lamp on her bedside table. She could confirm that it was definitely her friend standing beside her bed; the young woman was holding her hand against the side of her face where Lindsay must have hit her.

"Are you okay?" Lindsay asked in a quiet tone "I didn't realize it was you; I was just like, what the hell is going on, it's dark and someone is holding me down. Did I hurt you?"

"Nah," Kim shrugged. "You do have a hell of a swing on you though. If I hadn't pulled my head back when you started flailing out, I'd have a black eye right now."

"Oh god. I'm so sorry, Kim."

"It's okay; no harm done," Kim reassured her friend, taking her hand away so that Lindsay could see that her flailing hadn't done any actual damage to the woman's face.

"Well, I'm glad," Lindsay let out a sigh. "Though now I'm wondering what you are doing in my room at…' she looked over at the clock, "11:30 at night. And how the hell did you get in here anyway?"

Kim pointed over to Lindsay's bedroom window which was currently wide open. "Just climbed in your window. I thought about doing that whole throwing pebbles at the window thing, but you are a pretty sound sleeper and I didn't want to risk waking your parents up."

"Good call," Lindsay said. "My dad would be pissed if we woke him up in the middle of the night." The last thing Lindsay wanted was to give her parents yet another reason to rail against the "corrupting influence" of her best friend. She had enough fights with her dad about Kim; she didn't want to give him any reason to start another one.

"Something weird is going on with Daniel. Like really weird."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow in surprise. "When isn't he acting weird? I don't really see how that warrants a middle of the night visit."

"I'm serious," Kim said. "And I'm kind of freaking out here."

Realizing that Kim was indeed freaking out, and was gradually losing her ability to whisper in the process, Lindsay took stock of the situation.

As long as Lindsay had known Kim, she and Daniel had an on-again, off-again relationship. When they broke up the month before, Kim had said that this time it was for real, but Lindsay had heard that one before; she assumed it was only a matter of time before the two got back together again. Presumably whatever happened had something to do with that.

She reached out and placed an arm on Kim's shoulder. "Okay, okay. Let's talk about it; we can't talk here though. My dad's a light sleeper and if he finds you here in the middle of the night…"

"Good point," Kim said. "I still don't think he's forgiven me for forcing you to go on the Grateful

Dead tour."

The tour was still a bit of a sore point; well, not the tour itself. The tour was great and Lindsay and Kim had an amazing time. They were close before, but that trip really cemented their friendship. Lindsay had known that her parents would freak out when she came back; she was supposed to be spending two weeks at math camp, not following around a rock group. What Lindsay hadn't expected was that her parents, her dad especially, would foist all the blame on Kim. No matter how many times Lindsay explained that it was her idea and that she was the one that asked Kim to go, her dad was certain that somehow the whole thing was all Kim's fault.

"You know I don't care what my dad says, Kim. Going with you on that trip was like, the best thing I have ever done."

"Yeah?" Kim smiled, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"Yeah," Lindsay confirmed with a nod. "But that's not why you are here so let's go. We can talk at the picnic table in the backyard."

Throwing her jacket on over her nightgown and donning a pair of slippers, Lindsay followed Kim back out her bedroom window and the two women made their way to the table.

"Okay, so what's up?" Lindsay asked once the two were situated across from each other.

"Well, Daniel and his family went away on vacation for spring break. But we are back to class tomorrow so obviously they are back in town. Earlier this evening Daniel came over to see me. He said we should get back together and he invited me to go out to that new italian place with him on Tuesday night."

"What's so odd about that? I think we both know anytime you guys break up it's only a matter of time till one of you caves."

"What's different is Daniel. He was all dressed up; he cut his hair; he even brought me these weird looking flowers. Flowers! Daniel and I have dated for nearly three years and he's never brought me flowers before."

"I admit that is a bit… out of character for him. But maybe he thought that was the only way you would take him back," Lindsay offered.

"Maybe," Kim said, but she didn't look convinced. "But he had this weird vibe; he didn't feel like Daniel."

Kim wasn't one to worry over nothing. If she felt something was off, maybe something really was off with him. "Okay, I believe you. Do you want me to try to talk to him at school tomorrow? See if I can figure out what his deal is?"

Kim breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Linds. I was worried you would think I was just being silly."

"Come on, Kim. I'm your best friend; if you can't trust me to go all Charlie's Angels on your suddenly stranger-than-normal ex-boyfriend, who can you trust?"

Lindsay looked at her watch and saw that it was now after midnight. "We should probably get to bed so we aren't falling asleep in class tomorrow. Besides, I'll need to be in top form if I'm going to be interrogating Daniel."

As the two women got it from the picnic table Lindsay was surprised to herself enveloped by a hug from her best friend. While Kim had softened a bit in the years they had been friends, she was never really the hugging type. Usually the closest to a hug Lindsay expected to receive from her friend was a playful punch in the shoulder.

"This is really freaking you out, huh?" Lindsay asked, as she returned her friend's embrace. Feeling Kim nod against her shoulder, she whispered in Kim's ear, "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

* * *

7 AM came all too soon for Lindsay. After Kim had left, she had gone straight back to bed. Fortunately her parents appeared none the wiser of her late night visitor and backyard excursion, however seeing Kim freaked out had her worried.

Lindsay had no idea what might have happened to Daniel that would have caused Kim to react the way she did. Lindsay knew she wouldn't be able to figure anything out lying in bed in the middle of the night, but also knew that she wouldn't get a chance to figure things out until morning. She was impatient to solve this mystery right away and the combination of worry and impatience did not make it easy to fall back asleep.

Tired as she was when her alarm went off, she quickly readied herself for school. Her parents were surprised to see her dressed and ready to go 20 minutes earlier than usual but Lindsay knew that the sooner she got to school, the sooner she could crack this mystery.

Arriving at the gang's usual hangout spot, she quickly realized a flaw in her plan. Just because she was 20 minutes earlier than usual didn't make anyone else early. She took a seat against the wall and waited for her friends to arrive.

About 10 minutes later Ken and Nick were the first to arrive. Lindsay asked if either of them had seen Daniel since he got back from his trip but neither of them had; it seems like Kim was the only one he had visited since his return.

A few minutes later, Kim arrived. Lindsay and Kim exchanged a quick look which confirmed neither of them had seen Daniel yet and then Kim took a seat next to Lindsay. As tired as Lindsay felt, she could tell Kim had it worse; it looked like she might not have gotten any sleep at all. Lindsay put an arm around Kim in greeting and was somewhat surprised when Kim rested her head on Lindsay's shoulder.

As time passed it soon became clear that Daniel wasn't going to show up. Kim and Lindsay thought that he may have not come to school at all, but when Lindsay went to her 3rd period biology class that she shared with Daniel, he was there.

At first, Lindsay thought he was missing from the class; Lindsay, Ken and Daniel usually sat together near the back of the classroom. Ken was in his normal spot but Daniel's spot was empty. It wasn't until a few minutes into the class that she realized that Daniel was sitting at one of the seats in the front row. And she only noticed that when he raised his hand to answer a question the teacher asked the class.

Daniel would occasionally offer an answer in class, but it was always rarely a serious answer. So when Daniel answered the teacher's question with correctly, and with more detail than she herself could have provided, Lindsay knew that Kim was right. Daniel was definitely not acting like himself. She shared a look with Ken but it was clear that he was just as surprised as she at Daniel's sudden academic prowess.

From her vantage point in the back of the class, she couldn't see Daniel very well, but it was clear that he was now sporting a crew cut and had discarded his normal jean jacket for more of a preppy look. Lindsay wasn't sure what to make of it.

When the bell rang signaling the end of class, Lindsay made sure she was one of the first ones out the door. It was now lunch time so she figured she could catch Daniel as he was leaving to see if she could figure out the reason behind his sudden change.

As she stood in the hallway, she kept an eye on both doors out of the classroom as the other students filed past. After a couple of minutes, Lindsay thought she must of missed him somehow. All the other students had left and yet there was still no sign of Daniel.

She decided to take a look through the open door just in case he was still in the classroom. When did peer inside the classroom she saw Daniel in conversation with Mrs. DeLong. Lindsay could only make out a few words from her place in the hallway but it sounded like Daniel was asking questions about their end-of-term project. That wasn't due for another month and a half and even from a distance Lindsay could tell that Mrs. DeLong was just as surprised as Lindsay that Daniel, of all people, was looking to get started on his project this early.

Lindsay ducked back into the hallway before either noticed her and resumed waiting for Daniel. After several minutes, Daniel was still in the classroom and Lindsay debated whether to give up and head to lunch. She hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Daniel yet, but she felt she had enough to at least confirm Kim's suspicion that he was acting differently. She had told Kim that she would talk to him to find out why that is though, so Lindsay maintained her vigil.

Her patience paid off when just a few seconds later, Daniel emerged from the classroom. Not wasting any more time, Lindsay walked up to him.

"Daniel, hey," Lindsay said, awkwardly waving to him as she approached.

"Oh, hello, Lindsay," Daniel replied, turning to face her.

"I, uh, like the new look…" Lindsay said, gesturing to Daniel's attire and new haircut.

"Thank you. I thought it was time to start taking things seriously. I wasted so much time not doing anything; my new look is just one small way to show that I am through wasting time."

"Um, wow. That's great." Lindsay stammered. "What brought this on?"

"My family and I went to visit our relatives in Maine for spring break. While I was there, I got to thinking about things. I realized that I wasn't happy with the way my life was going so I decided to make a change.

"Do you realize how much time we spend just hanging out? Imagine what we could accomplish if we used that time for school work, or doing volunteer work, or getting a part-time job. Anything would be better than just wasting our time doing nothing."

"So you don't want to spend time with us?"

"Of course, I want to spend time with you," Daniel said. "But I want it be productive. We can study together or join a club or something. I just don't want to spend time doing nothing."

"Yeah, but what about having fun?"

Daniel sighed. "I've spent the last eighteen years 'having fun.' It's time I made something of myself."

Lindsay wasn't sure what to make of this new Daniel. She knew all too well that sometimes people just had to reinvent themselves; she had done it herself when she first befriended Daniel, Nick, Ken and Kim. There was an earlier version of Lindsay that embodied many of the same attitudes that Daniel was no espousing. Who was she to say what he could or couldn't be?

It was off-putting, but ultimately, Daniel was his own person and it really wasn't Lindsay's place to get in the way if he really wanted a new life for himself.

"I hope that works out for you," Lindsay told Daniel, figuring she at least owed it to him to be polite.

"Thank you, Lindsay," Daniel responded. "I am going to the library to study. I have an economics test later this week. You are welcome to join me, if you would like."

There was no way Lindsay was going to give up her own lunch period just to study. Besides, she really needed to meet up with Kim to let her know what she had learned. "I am actually supposed to be meeting up with Kim for lunch, but thanks for the offer."

As Lindsay made her way to the gang's usual hangout, she realized she still didn't really have any clue as to why Daniel was acting so differently. He was definitely different, and while she had some idea of exactly how he was different but she still had no real idea on the why.


	2. Chapter 2

When Lindsay met up with Kim, Nick and Ken were there as well. She wasn't really surprised to see them there; the five them hung out together at lunch pretty much every day. Though now it looked like maybe it was going to be just the four of them.

Lindsay wanted to tell Kim about her run-in with Daniel but she wasn't sure if she should say anything in front of Nick and Ken. It wasn't that she didn't trust them; they were great friends. But Kim didn't really like to let anyone else know when she was freaking out about stuff.

Fortunately, as soon as she sat down, Ken broached the topic for her. "Hey, Lindsay. What was up with Daniel in class today?"  
"I have no idea," Lindsay answered honestly, sharing a look with Kim. "I actually ran into him after class," she added, leaving out the part about how she had been waiting around in the hallway for ten minutes. "He was all 'I need to start taking school seriously' and stuff. It was weird."

"Daniel said that?" Nick scoffed. "Last month he made fun of me for a week when he found out I had been seeing a tutor so I wouldn't flunk out of math class."

"Yeah," Kim spoke for the first time since Lindsay had arrived, "I guess sometimes people just change…"

"Yeah," Lindsay agreed. "But just because people change, doesn't mean they can't change back."

"Whatever," Kim said with a shrug.

"I have to head to the ladies room," Lindsay said. "Kim, do you want to join me?" Neither Kim nor Lindsay were really the 'go to the bathroom in pairs' type, but she figured that if Kim wanted to talk more about what she had learned this would be the perfect opportunity. She and Kim could leave together and Ken and Nick wouldn't think anything of it.

"Sure," Kim said, pushing herself up against the wall. "Let's go."

Lindsay wasn't sure if Kim would actually go with her to the bathroom or if she would start questioning her as soon as they rounded the corner, but Kim seemed intent on waiting until they had arrived at their destination.

Knowing that they were dealing with something serious, Lindsay intentionally bypassed the washroom by the cafeteria and made her way to the washroom near shop class. At this time of day, it was likely to be deserted.

Once the two girls reached their destination, Kim broke her silence. "What else did you learn?"

"Not a whole lot, I'm afraid. You are definitely right about him being different. It was like it wasn't even really him anymore, you know?"

"Tell me about it," Kim agreed. "Did you learn anything about what brought this on?"

Lindsay hated to disappoint her friend, but she was forced to admit that she hadn't learned all that much. "All I really know is that he said he realized he had been 'wasting his time' and that he wanted to start being like a productive member of society."

"Then why would he try to get back together with me?" Kim wondered. "I'm like the poster child for fuck-ups; I don't see why he'd try to patch things up with me if he's trying to clean up his act."

"He cares about you, Kim. Just because he wants to do better in school doesn't mean he's going to stop caring about you."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"What do you mean?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow at Lindsay.

"He clearly wants to get back together with you. You said he asked you to dinner last night."

"I don't think I want to go out with him again," Kim answered.

"So he is a bit of a nerd now," Lindsay replied. "You two have been together for years; you should at least give him a shot."

Honestly Lindsay wasn't really sure that Daniel was good enough for Kim. They fought all the time and Daniel rarely seemed to appreciate Kim the way she should be appreciated. Kim loved the guy anyway though, so Lindsay did her best to be supportive. She figured that was her job as Kim's best friend.

The first couple times when Daniel and Kim had split, after Kim and Lindsay had become best friends, Lindsay had told Kim flat out that Daniel was a jerk and that Kim deserved someone who would treat her like she deserved to be treated. Kim seemed to appreciate what Lindsay had to say at the time, but Lindsay's disapproval of their relationship only made things awkward when Kim and Daniel inevitably got back together. So Lindsay had learned to accept that this would happen and she just supported Kim as best she could whenever Kim and Daniel were on the outs. Lindsay was surprised to see that things seemed to be playing out a bit differently today.

"He's had his shot," Kim sighed. "Hell, he's had plenty of shots. So have I, for that matter. I think maybe it's time I accept that we just don't work; not for the long haul, at least."

"But you love him," Lindsay countered.

"I'm not sure I do," Kim said. "Not anymore at least. I think I had already decided even before his whole new persona; I think we may just be over for real this time." Lindsay was surprised to realize that Kim was starting to tear up.

"Oh, Kim," Lindsay said. Lindsay wrapped her arms around Kim, trying to comfort her friend. Kim returned the embrace, squeezing Lindsay tightly.

"I just don't really know how to not be with him, you know?" Kim half-sobbed.

"I know. Don't worry; I'll still be with you." Lindsay instantly reddened as she realized how that sounded. "Not, not like that. I'm just, you know, here for you to help you however I can. I'd do anything for you. I don't mean like I'll be with you in like a sex way or something. Not that you were asking me to. I just, I'm just going to shut up now."

Kim chuckled. "I can always count on you to make me laugh. Even if it's just because you are rambling like an idiot!"

"Hey," Lindsay pulled back and playfully started smacking Kim's arm. "Take that back!"

"I'm sorry," Kim answered, grinning. "You weren't rambling like an idiot. You just are an idiot. But you're my idiot, so it's okay."

"Thanks, I guess," Lindsay said, returning the grin. "Ready to head back out there?"

"Not really," Kim admitted. "But we probably should. The bell rang like 2 minutes ago."

"What?!" Lindsay shouted.

"Yeah, it was during our hugfest. I guess you were too busy freaking out about the fact you accidentally hit on me to have heard it," Kim teased.

"I did not hit on you!" Lindsay responded.

"Well you did offer to do anything for me," Kim teased, waggling her eyebrows.

"You're the worst," Lindsay answered. "Sometimes I don't know why I'm best friends with you."

"I'm the best, and you know it."

"Yeah, yeah." Lindsay answered. She reached out and grabbed Kim's hand. "Come on, let's get to class, loser."

* * *

For the next couple weeks, things more or less went back to normal. Daniel no longer hung out with the rest of the gang during or after school, but he was civil enough when approached; he just no longer had anything in common with them. Plus he had this creepy vibe that discouraged the gang from wanting to hang out with him anyway.

After her minor breakdown in the bathroom, Kim was a bit mopey for a few days but it didn't take long till she was back to her normal self. Everyone missed Daniel but their group was strong enough that it would take more than the absence of one member to hurt their dynamic; they adapted and moved on. Life was good.

A few weeks later though when Monday rolled around, Nick was missing from school. This, in and of itself, was not a big deal. Out of all of them, Nick was the one most likely to blow off school for the day. Lindsay didn't really think anything of it.

On Tuesday morning though, Lindsay was surprised to see Nick and Daniel come out of the library together. At first, she didn't even realize it was Nick. Like Daniel he was now sporting a crew cut and he had traded in his normal look for a preppy sweater vest.

As one, both men turned their heads towards her and smiled. Lindsay felt a chill run down her spine, but she wasn't sure why.

"Hello, Lindsay," Nick greeted.

"Uh, hey, guys," Lindsay responded. "How is it going?"

"It's going quite well," Nick responded. "Daniel and I were just getting ready for that history test tomorrow."

"Oh yeah?" Lindsay asked. "Since when do you study?"

"We will be graduating in a couple months, Lindsay," Nick responded. "If I want to make something of myself, it's about time I got serious, don't you think?"

"Oh, um, yeah. That's great. Good for you," Lindsay stammered.

"Speaking of getting serious," Nick said. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"We're talking right now, aren't we?" Lindsay responded.

"Yeah, but can we talk in private?"

Lindsay was nervous, but this was Nick she was talking to. "Sure, we can do that."

"Great," Nick smiled again. "I'll catch up with you later, Daniel."

Daniel nodded at them and strode off down the hall.

"Where did you want to talk?" Lindsay asked.

"I just need to get something out of my locker," Nick answered. "Can you meet me behind the gym in about 5 minutes?"

"Uh, sure." Lindsay said, still feeling more than a little nervous about this.

"Great," Nick said with a nod and disappeared down the hall.

On her way to their planned meeting spot, Lindsay was relieved to spot Kim's blonde locks down the hall. "Kim! I need your help."

"What's wrong?" Kim asked, immediately going into serious mode.

"It's Nick. He has taken a page out of Daniel's book and he's suddenly all studious and shit. It's kind of freaking me out."

"Fuck," Kim exclaimed. "This is getting weird."

"Tell me about it," Lindsay answered. "Nick wants to talk to me behind the gym, like right now. I mean, it's just Nick; we've been friends for years. But it's all so creepy."

"Don't worry, I got your back."

"He asked to talk to me in private though; I can't really bring you with me or he'll just ask for us to talk somewhere else."

"Well, then I'll just have to hide around the corner then. That way I can keep an eye on you and if he does anything weird, I'll just jump out and kick his ass for you."

Lindsay felt a flush of relief. She wasn't sure what was going in with Daniel and now Nick but she was starting to feel like the town had been invaded by a creepy cult or something; knowing Kim would be there to watch out for her made Lindsay feel much better.

"Thanks, Kim. You're the best," Lindsay said, impulsively giving her friend a quick hug.

"That's what they tell me," Kim joked. "Don't worry; I'll make sure you're safe."

* * *

A few minutes later, Lindsay was relieved to find that she had arrived before Nick. That meant there was no chance that he would be able to see Kim had shown up as well.

Kim must have practically ran to the meet-up. Since they didn't know if Nick would already be there, she had gone out the front entrance when the two had separated. Kim would have had to go all the way around the side of the building to be able to monitor without risk of being observed. Yet, when Lindsay arrived, Kim had poked her head out from behind the dumpster and given her a quick thumbs up.

No sooner had Kim ducked back around the dumpster then the back door opened again and Nick emerged.

"Hey, Lindsay," Nick greeted. "I got these for you."

Lindsay looked down and realized Nick was holding a bouquet of flowers. Presumably that was what he had to get from his locker.

"Uh, thanks," Lindsay said.

Nick presented the flowers to Lindsay and Lindsay felt obliged to accept them. Lindsay was no flower expert, but she had never seen flowers like these. The bright purple bulbs looked sticky and wet and the drab green stalks did little to enhance their appearance. "They're, um, beautiful."

"The reason I asked you to talk is that I was doing some thinking and I think it's time we gave our relationship a real shot."

Lindsay tried to cut in, but Nick continued. "Please, let me finish. I know that things didn't work out so well between us when we tried this before, but I have grown a lot as a person since then and I think we would make a great team."

"I'm sorry, Nick," Lindsay responded. "I'm just not interested."

Nick was right that they had tried in the past. When they first met Nick had a huge crush on Lindsay; and then later Lindsay realized she had feelings for him, but they were never really able to get things on the same page. They had dated for a while, but they just weren't compatible in the romantic sense. They had decided last year that they were much better off as friends than lovers.

"I'm not asking you to take me back right away," Nick argued. "But give me a shot. There's this new italian restaurant in town that's supposed to be amazing. Come have dinner with me and let's see if we can make this work."

"I really like you, Nick." Lindsay responded. "But we're just friends. I don't think we should be anything more than that." Even if Nick wasn't suddenly acting all weird, Lindsay had no interest in rekindling that aspect of their relationship.

"Okay," Nick nodded, surprisingly nonplussed. "Well, keep the flowers. And if you change your mind, just let me know."

"I'll keep the flowers, but I can guarantee you I won't be changing my mind."

Nick laughed. "Lindsay, there are no guarantees in life." With that he turned and disappeared back into the school.

The moment the door closed, Kim was at her side. "So, that was weird."

"Tell me about it," Lindsay answered.

"You know what's even weirder?" Kim asked. "These flowers. They look nearly identical to the same ugly-ass flowers that Daniel tried to give me when he tried to ask me out."

"Maybe the gas station down the street sells them," Lindsay pondered.

"Have you ever seen flowers that look like these before?" Kim asked. When Lindsay shook her head, she continued. "Yeah, me neither."

"What if they are like drugged or something?" Lindsay said, eyeing the flowers suspiciously. First Daniel and then Nick both undergo drastic personality changes seemingly overnight and then they both try to give us the same flowers. What if it isn't a coincidence?"

"Okay," Kim wrenched the flowers from Lindsay's hands. "These are going in the dumpster, right now."

"No, wait!" Lindsay shouted.

"Why? Even if these flowers aren't drugged, they are still super ugly. They deserve to go in the dumpster."

"But what if they are drugged?"

"So you want to keep them to see if you end up like Nick and Daniel? No fucking way."

"If something really is going on, we need to know about it," Lindsay reasoned.

"Yeah," Kim scoffed. "Let's just go take these to Mrs. DeLong. 'Hey, Mrs. DeLong, we think these flowers might have turned our friends into total squares. Can you check them out for us?' Best case scenario, she'll think we're trying to prank her."

"I think I know someone else that can help."


	3. Chapter 3

For all of her life, there was one person Lindsay could always count on when it came to solving a puzzle. There's was nothing that Millie couldn't figure out. As Lindsay had reinvented herself, there had been some awkwardness between the two, but they had put that behind them; other than Kim, there was nobody that Lindsay trusted more. Besides, if the class valedictorian couldn't figure out this mystery, then who could?

There hadn't been time at lunch but as soon as class ended for the day, Kim and Lindsay were able to track down Millie at her usual table in the library.

"Hey, Millie!" Lindsay greeted her friend with a wave.

"Hey, Lindsay," Millie returned the greeting.

"So this might sound a little crazy, but have you noticed anything odd around the school lately?"

"You mean like people suddenly getting super into their schoolwork and being 'productive members of society'?"

"You know?" Kim gasped.

"Yeah, well in the past three weeks, three football players, two stoners and last year's prom queen have all joined the Mathletes. Not to mention your friend, Daniel. And they are good. Like really good. And they shouldn't be. I'm not saying that all jocks are dumb, but I tutored two of the footballer players and they were just barely getting by. And now they are some of the smartest people in the club."

Lindsay was glad that she wouldn't have to try to convince Millie of their story. But that relief quickly gave way to horror. How had she not noticed so many of her classmates had changed? There really had to be something going on. "That many people?"

Millie looked around, ensuring there were no other students nearby but she lowered her voice anyway. "That's only the ones that have joined the Mathletes," Millie added. "There are at least a dozen other students that have changed; being a nerd has suddenly become the cool thing to be."

"Any idea why?" Lindsay asked.

"Sadly, no." Millie shook her head. "That's actually what I am doing here in the library. I've been trying to figure out what might have caused this. Today, I'm researching the history of local cults to see if that could explain things. No luck so far though."

"We think we might have something," Lindsay said. "Kim?"

At Lindsay's prompting, Kim opened her backpack. From there, she gingerly pulled out a tightly tied garbage bag. It was actually 3 tightly tied garbage bags, one inside the other inside the other. Inside the innermost bag were the flowers that Nick had given Lindsay. They didn't have a proper container but if there really was something in the flowers that was causing this, they didn't want to risk accidental exposure so they had made do as best they could.

Lindsay explained, "The first time Kim ran into Daniel after he changed, he asked her out on a date and gave her flowers. Now today, Nick has changed and he did the exact same thing. It could be a coincidence but neither of us have ever seen flowers that look like these."

"So you are thinking that somehow the flowers are responsible?"

"I know," Lindsay admitted. "It sounds crazy, but it's all we have got so far. I told Kim if anyone could help us get to the bottom of this, it would be you."

"I'm no botanist, Linds."

"No, but you are like the smartest person in this school. Plus you are a bit of a science nerd."

"Hey!" Millie shouted, her face falling.

"I mean it in a good way," Lindsay said. "You are awesome; trust me."

"Well, it couldn't hurt to look," Millie said, reaching for the bag that Kim was still holding.

"Unless you get dosed with it and you end up having the same thing happen to you as seems to be happening to everyone else," Kim countered.

Millie's hand froze inches from the bag. "Good point. Lucky for us, Mrs. DeLong gave me the key to the biology lab so I could work on my experiments whenever I wanted."

"Wow, you are a nerd. Are you sure you aren't already one of them?" Kim asked.

"Hey," Lindsay jumped in. "Be nice." Turning to Millie, she added, "We really do appreciate your help, Millie."

Lindsay knew that neither Kim nor Millie were particularly fond of the other. Unfortunately, as Lindsay's two closest friends, they were sometimes forced to interact. It had been rough going for the first year or so, but lately they had formed an uneasy truce. When things got tense though, they tended to start picking at each other.

While having large numbers of students be drastically altered somehow did seem like a good reason for things to be tense, Lindsay didn't want to have to deal with her friends fighting on top of everything else.

Kim seemed to pick up Lindsay's mood and she mumbled a quick apology to Millie. "Sorry, Millie. I'm just a little freaked out right now."

"It's okay," Millie said, waving off the apology. "Let's just get to the biology lab. It's already almost 4 o'clock so the lab should be empty by now. We just need to figure out a way to examine the flowers there without exposing ourselves to whatever the flowers might be producing."

"That's assuming the flowers are the culprit," Lindsay added. "We still aren't sure they are."

"It's a good place to start though," Millie concluded.

* * *

A few minutes later, they were in the biology lab. Millie passed out face masks and gloves for everyone. She warned them that there really was no guarantee that these would be enough to protect them if the plant was dangerous. After all, this was a high school biology lab, not a CDC facility. They just didn't have access to a facility or the protective materials they would need if they wanted to be 100% certain they were safe.

Kim pointed out that both Lindsay and Kim had handled the flowers, or at least the plastic wrapping at the base of the flowers and nothing had happened to them yet. While that was far from a guarantee of safety, the three were eager enough to get to the bottom of this potential mystery that they decided to proceed.

First, Millie had Kim hold a container while she very carefully unwrapped the garbage bags. She then deposited the flowers inside the container and sealed the lid.

"Okay, assuming we didn't just get sprayed with a bunch of spores or something, we should be safe for the moment."

"Wait, spores?" Kim asked. "Jesus! How would we know if we did get sprayed?"

"Um, there's not really any way to know how we would know unfortunately. I mean assuming that these flowers really are dangerous, and assuming they infect people by releasing spores then we might have a physical reaction to the exposure. But it could be that there are no physical symptoms. For all we know, everything would seem normal and then tomorrow we would just wake up different."

"Okay, I am really not liking that idea!" Kim said backing away from the container. "I'm quite happy with who I am, thanks."

"It's probably not spores though," Lindsay added, hoping to calm her friend.

"You don't know that!" Kim shouted, clearly starting to panic.

"Yeah, but Daniel gave you the same kind of flowers three weeks ago, right? If they were spraying spores, you would have changed weeks ago." Lindsay trailed off. It was bad enough that Daniel and Nick were suddenly acting all weird, but if this had happened to Kim too, she didn't know what she would have done. What if Kim and Daniel had both shown up at school that day acting all different? She didn't like that idea one bit.

"The flowers from three weeks ago," Lindsay asked. "Do you still have them?"

"No, I threw them in the trash like five minutes after Daniel left."

"Still, you were exposed to flowers like these before with no ill effects" Millie interjected. "Hopefully that means we didn't just expose ourselves to some freaky spores and we can go on being us. Hopefully."

Millie picked up the container and took a closer look at the flowers. "I've definitely never seen flowers quite like these ones before. Of course, that doesn't mean much. Flowers definitely aren't my speciality; there are lots of flowers I wouldn't be able to identify on sight. We are operating solely on the basis of a single coincidence here. Yes, these flowers could be our culprit, but it could just be that there's a flower shop in town that happens to sell these.

"I'm going to try and get some samples I can put under a microscope. See if I can find anything. Can you two ask around and see if anyone else has seen flowers like these?"

"Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" Lindsay asked.

"Probably?" Millie admitted. "We don't know what we might be dealing with here. If I start cutting into this thing, anything could happen."

"Then we should stay here with you," Lindsay argued. "We can't make you face that risk alone."

"You being here isn't going to make it any safer. And if something goes wrong, it just means all three of us are exposed and then who is going to save us? If you aren't here, at least then maybe you can save me if something goes wrong."

"Um," Kim said, eyes-downcast. "I'm not trying to be a jerk or whatever, but how would we know if you were changed? You are already the valedictorian and on the mathletes and you've got the preppy nerd look down to a T. How much more seriously can you take your studies?"

"She's got a point," Millie admitted. "I'm pretty much the poster child for this whole thing. How would you know if I changed?"

"I'd know, Millie." Lindsay reassured. "Sure you like math and science and you take your studies seriously, but that's just who you are. Not to sound like an after school special. but there's nothing wrong with being smart, or caring about school. You're still you, you know?"

"Uh, not really following you," Millie admitted.

"It's not just that Daniel and Nick and all those other people are suddenly acting differently. If it were, I don't think we'd really be freaking out all that much. It's that they feel like different people. I'm not sure how to explain it, but there's something off about them.

"Just think about last year. When I suddenly started hanging out with Kim and the guys and I dropped out of the mathletes, I was acting totally different, right?"

"Yeah," Millie agreed.

"But did you ever think I had been brainwashed or replaced with some sort of pod person or something? Trust me, Millie. You and I have been best friends since the first grade; if something happens to you, I'll know it. And Kim and I will do everything we can to save you if it does. Nobody steals my best friend away."

"Aw, thanks Lindsay."

"Okay, enough feelings talk for one day," Kim chimed in. "Come on, Lindsay. We have a mystery to solve!"


	4. Chapter 4

It turns out that high school kids, particularly the boys, don't pay a whole lot of attention to what kinds of flowers people might be carrying around with them. Lindsay and Kim spent the rest of the week showing students a Polaroid photo of the flowers and asking students if they had seen anyone with similar flowers.

While they continued to search, another half-dozen members of the senior class had been changed. After their discussion with Millie, Lindsay was amazed she had missed the earlier cases. Once you knew what to look for, it was very easy to spot the telltale signs.

More troubling was that the changed kids had formed their own club, the McKinley High Society for School Improvement. It was actually founded by Daniel and its membership was comprised solely of kids who had undergone the mysterious transformation. Supposedly the club met to discuss ways to help improve the school, but Lindsay and Kim suspected they had a much more sinister motive.

Millie was continuing her research but had still not been able to identify the plant. She had been able to confirm that it didn't shoot out any spores when poked or prodded so that was good, but otherwise she was making very little headway. They still weren't even sure if the plant was the culprit.

Lindsay and Kim decided to fill Ken on their suspicions. He initially laughed off their story, but he did agree to be careful. It was clear something odd was going on; even if Ken wasn't ready to believe their story, he at least agreed to watch his back.

On Saturday afternoon, Millie called Lindsay and asked to meet at the local community college. Apparently Millie had been taking an AP Biology class there to get a head start on her college career and she had been able to convince the professor to give her access to the lab for a few hours. Lindsay called Kim and pretty soon the three women were congregated in a slightly more advanced looking biology lab.

"I have good news and bad news," Millie told them.

"Let's get the bad news out of the way first," Kim suggested.

"Um, actually the bad news only really makes sense if I tell you the good news first," Millie admitted.

"I guess that's why people always ask for the good news first then," Lindsay chuckled. "Okay, what's the good news then?"

"The good news is that I was able to identify the flowers. This place might not look like much, but they have a really detailed specimen library and I determined that what we are dealing with is called rubeum allec.

"The bad news is, while that breed of flower is not the most common, it's nothing special. It doesn't do anything to nearby flora or fauna that you wouldn't expect. There's nothing to suggest that it's anything other than a regular old flower."

"So we just wasted a bunch of time trying to track down any other cases of people being given these flowers," Kim sighed.

"Yeah," Lindsay added. "That's bad. If it was the flowers at least we would know what to be on guard for. Now we have no idea how someone might try to get to us."

"It's worse than that," Millie admitted. "We have been so focused on the idea that someone was deliberately infecting students with these flowers that we failed to consider the bigger picture. What if nobody is doing this?"

"Well," Lindsay responded. "Clearly something is happening, right?"

"I don't mean nobody is being infected, though to be fair we don't even know for sure if it is an infection, but we are assuming that someone is intentionally doing this. But it could just be some random virus that is changing the neurochemistry in the brain. If that's the case, the infected students could be passing on the infection to others without even realizing it, just like how you might give someone else a cold.

"If that's the case, then there's no plot for us to infiltrate, no mastermind for us to uncover, it's just a horrible disease that we can't do anything about. At least not without the help of a dedicated team of scientists and millions of dollars of research.

"Or maybe there is some intelligence at work here. What would that mean? Are we talking about some sort of mad scientist going around brainwashing students? Or like an alien invasion looking to enslave our planet? Or what? It's like something out of a sci-fi movie!"

"That's it!" Kim shouted.

"What is?" Lindsay asked. "A sci-fi movie?"

Lindsay had grown more and more worried as Millie had gotten more and more worked up about how in over their heads they were; now she felt a glimmer of hope. "What's your idea?"

"It's like something out of a science fiction movie. Geeks! We need science fiction geeks. Science fiction movies deal with this kind of crap all the time. What if we got your brother and his friends to help us?"

"They do watch an awful lot of sci-fi," Lindsay agreed.

"This is real life," Millie argued. "Just because they know what happens on TV or in the movies, doesn't mean they are going to know anything about what happens is happening here in the real world."

"It can't hurt though," Kim reasoned.

"Yeah," Lindsay agreed. " At the very least, they're probably more likely to believe us than Ken was."

* * *

Millie decided to stay at the college. She was going to hit the books to see if she could find any real-life scenarios that fit the pattern they were seeing.

On the way back to Lindsay's house, Kim was worried about having another run in with Lindsay's dad.

"He's not going to yell at me again, is he?" Kim asked.

"He hasn't done that in like weeks," Lindsay joked.

"I just don't like causing drama for you and your dad," Kim said.

"You're worth it," Lindsay responded, placing her hand on Kim's.

"Yeah?" Kim asked, smiling.

"Totally," Lindsay nodded. "We don't have to worry about it anyway; my parents actually left this morning. My dad has some business convention he's going to in Santa Mira."

"Where's that?"

"It's somewhere in California."

"That's quite a business trip for a local hardware store owner."

"Apparently it's some big deal; he was actually nominated for an award and everything. He's totally stoked about it. In his dad way, at least. He and mom decided to make a big trip out of it; they are doing a cross-country drive and they are going to do a bunch of sightseeing and stuff. The bottom line is that Sam and I have the house to ourselves for the next 3 weeks."

"Oh yeah?" Kim asked. "Any other time, I would be super-psyched right now. Three whole weeks without your parents around, just think of how much fun we could have; your place would be like party central."

"There wouldn't be any parties," Lindsay responded. "My parents still bitch about the last time I tried that. And you know they would totally find out."

"Oh please," Kim joked. "You would be all 'Kim, it's too risky. My parents will find out!' but we both know you can't say no to me. By the weekend we'd have one hell of a party on the go."

Lindsay knew that Kim was right. Kim would have given her a pout and before she knew it, LIndsay would have been totally on board the party train.

"It would definitely be a better way to spend our time than having to deal with whatever the fuck is going on," Lindsay sighed. "But hey, we have three weeks. Maybe we can solve this whole mess before my parents get back. If we manage to crack this and not end up as pod people ourselves, we are definitely going to have the biggest party this town has ever seen. I'll be too happy to care if my parents find out at that point."

"Okay, then," Kim agreed. "Let's go talk to your geeky little brother, figure out what the hell is going on, fix it and then we party! Piece of cake!"

* * *

As luck would have it, they found when Lindsay and Kim walked in the door, they found Sam and Bill sprawled out on the living room floor in front of the TV, watching some science fiction movie.

"Hey, Sam," Lindsay greeted.

"Hey, Lindsay," Sam responded, not looking away from the TV where it appeared that an astronaut was doing battle with a giant space ant.

"Can we talk to you guys for a minute?" Lindsay asked.

"Can it wait till after the movie?"

"Not really."

"Fine," Sam replied. "But now we're never going to know if Captain Time defeats the evil Antians."

"How ever will you survive?"

Once Sam had gotten up and turned off the TV, he returned to his place on the floor. Lindsay and Kim opted to sit on the couch.

"Where's the other one?" Kim asked.

"You mean Neil?" Bill asked. "He apparently feels that he's 'outgrown'' science fiction films. We haven't really seen him at all this week."

"Outside of school, at least," Sam added.

Kim and Lindsay shared a look.

"He didn't happen to also start talking about how he needed to take his studies more seriously, did he?"

"Yeah, he did," Sam responded. "He said he wanted to stop wasting his time with silly stuff."

"Fuck," Lindsay said softly. "It's more widespread than we thought; it's not just happening to seniors."

Kim chimed in, "If it's not just seniors what if it's not just students? We assumed it was only other kids in our grade but what if it's happening to everyone?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sam asked.

Lindsay turned to her brother. "Okay, Sam. Have you noticed anyone else acting strangely in the last little while? Anyone else that suddenly decided that they needed to get serious about their schoolwork? Maybe got a haircut, and went for more of a… nerdy look?"

"Vicki," Bill jumped in. "Last week she dropped out of cheerleading and now she spends almost all of her free time studying."

"Okay, well about three weeks ago, Daniel showed up at Kim's house..."

Lindsay and Kim proceeded to outline everything that they had learned over the last few weeks. The signs they had noticed, the weird flowers that had turned out to not mean anything, the people who had changed, the McKinley High Society for School Improvement and the wide range of possible options Millie had mentioned.

Lindsay and Sam, like many teenaged siblings, didn't always get along but when the chips were down, Lindsay knew she could always count on her little brother. And Sam didn't disappoint. While Bill and Sam had seemed a little skeptical at first, when Kim and Lindsay provided more details, they were convinced. It probably helped that they had seen some of the evidence themselves; they just hadn't noticed enough cases to connect all the dots.

"So what do we do now?" Sam asked.

"We were kinda hoping you could tell us," Lindsay replied.

"Yeah," Kim added. "This is like something right out of a science fiction movie."

Lindsay picked up from Kim, "But we don't know which science fiction movie. We don't know what's causing this; Millie is doing the science to try and figure things out but she's only one person and this thing is huge. So we thought while she tries to get answers out of the science, maybe you guys could help us with ideas of what this could be."

"The flowers," Bill chimed in. "That's straight out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

"The Donald Sutherland movie?" Kim asked.

"Or the Kevin McCarthy version," Bill replied. "The Donald Sutherland version is a remake. But in both versions when people fall asleep near one of the plants, their bodies melt and alien plant duplicates take their place."

"But Millie already determined the plants aren't the problem," Lindsay countered.

"Assuming she is telling the truth," Sam responded.

"Why would she lie?"

"If she was replaced with an alien duplicate, of course," Bill chimed in.

Lindsay thought back to the conversation she and Kim had with Millie when they first started investigating. Her faith was as strong now as it was then; there was no way that Millie had been replaced.

"Millie's still Millie. The people who have been changed or replaced or whatever, they are different. When Neil first told you all about how he was too mature for sci-fi movies, was he just acting uptight? Or did he feel wrong somehow?"

"I get what you are saying," Bill agreed. "But if there is someone or something in charge of whatever is happening, they might know that you are on to them."

"Bill's right," Sam agreed. "If they know, or even suspect, that you are on to them, they might change tactics. Just because it was really obvious when other people have been changed doesn't mean they couldn't be more subtle about it if they wanted to. They might be able to replace or change someone but make them act like their old selves, that way you go right along trusting them until bam, they lead you right into a trap."

Lindsay paled as she considered the ramifications of what her brother just said. While they hadn't broadcast their suspicions to the world, Lindsay, Kim and Millie certainly hadn't been overly subtle in their investigations either. What if they had put a target on their backs? What if one of her friends was actively working against her at this very moment?

Kim seemed to sense Lindsay's fear. "We can't worry about that."

"That's just what someone who was turned would say," Bill responded. "How do we know you aren't one of them?"

Kim ignored his rebuke and continued her argument. "If we are going to get to the bottom of whatever this is, we're going to have to work together. If we start worrying about whether we can trust each other, or just start throwing around blind accusations, we'll never figure this thing out.

"Admittedly, I don't know you two," Kim gestured at Sam and Bill, "All that well, but I trust my friends, and if Lindsay trusts you then I'm willing to as well."

"But what if one of us isn't us?" Sam asked.

"Kim's right," Lindsay countered. "Let's just say that it's possible for this to happen to someone without the rest of us being able to tell, and say it has happened to one of us. What can we really do differently? Unless we have some sort of foolproof method to prove we haven't been infected, then being paranoid of each other is only going to make it harder for us to investigate. It won't make us safer; it won't make it easier to uncover anything; the only thing we can do is assume that all of us are okay unless we have a reason to think otherwise."

"Okay," Bill agreed. "But we can't bring anyone else in on this. Assuming that nobody is on to you already, the more people that we bring in on this, the more likely that someone will be on to us. And the easier it will be to infect someone in the group and expose us all."

"But we should be warning people," Lindsay responded. People needed to know the danger they were in.

"It won't do any good," Bill responded. "In the movies, nobody ever believes high school students until it is too late. Is there anyone that you haven't told yet that would actually believe you if tried to tell them this?"

"No," Lindsay admitted with a sigh. "Even Ken was pretty skeptical of our story."

"If we get some solid proof, then we can try warning people, but for now we have to keep things to ourselves. It's our best chance for success."

"Okay, fine," Lindsay agreed. "But that means that it's up to the 5 of us to stop whatever the hell this is."

"So what do you think is actually happening?" Kim asked. "You guys are the experts on this sci-fi stuff; what is going on here?"

"The flowers!" Sam shouted.

Lindsay sighed in frustration. This was getting them nowhere. "We just talked about this; Millie says the flowers aren't anything special. And we're trusting Millie."

"Yeah, I know," Sam agreed. "But both Daniel and Nick gave you flowers, right?"

"Yeah," Kim agreed. "They wanted us to go out with them."

"Exactly! That's a common thread; the flowers themselves aren't important but both Daniel and Nick immediately tried to ask one of you out after they had been changed."

Bill seemed to pick up on what Sam was saying and picked up the thread. "That's right. If Daniel and Nick are suddenly all about taking their school work more seriously and abandoning any hobbies that they deem too frivolous, why would they want to ask you out? I mean, no offense, but neither of you are exactly models of good citizenship and academic success."

Sam jumped back in. "What if they were looking to infect you as well!

"That means this probably isn't a passive infection. Whatever is going around is trying to spread. Whether the infected are conscious of that desire or if it's something subconscious, they are actively trying to change the uninfected."

"But how?" Lindsay asked.

"That's the question," Bill responded. "If it's a virus, bacteria or some sort of parasite, it could be passed on through kissing… or the exchange of other bodily fluids."

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "But there are lots of other possibilities. There could be brainwashing, or some sort of implant. They might even be duplicates of the original hosts."

Lindsay took a moment to absorb this information. Could it be that Nick and Daniel didn't just feel wrong but weren't even actually Nick and Daniel at all?

"If they are duplicates, what would happen to the originals?"

"Well," Bill replied. "In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when a duplicate is created the original body kind of just melts into a big pile of goo. Generally if you have created a duplicate, you don't want to leave the original just lying around for someone to find. Except-"

"Except what?" Kim interrupted.

"Well, sometimes the bad guys will use the original hosts to feed information to the duplicates. That's how the duplicates are able to remember everything the original hosts knew. It could be something like that."

"We need to narrow things down," Lindsay said. "We can't protect ourselves against every possible scenario."

"Okay," Sam replied. "What about when Nick and Daniel asked you out? Aside from the flowers, was anything else the same?" Sam turned to face Kim. "Tell us everything you can remember about when Daniel asked you out that night."

"Well, he showed up at my door with flowers in hand." Kim explained. "He said that he was sorry for the way that he had acted and that he wanted us to get back together. He invited me to dinner at that new place on Faulkner Street."

Something about that sounded familiar. After a moment, she realized what it was. "Wait, on Faulkner Street. That new Italian place?"

"Yeah," Kim confirmed. "That's the one."

"Nick invited me to the exact same place! That can't be a coincidence!"

"Actually," Bill interrupted, "It totally can be. We already determined that the flowers were a coincidence. And if you are going to invite someone to dinner, a fancy new restaurant seems like an obvious choice."

Lindsay wasn't willing to let it go so easily. "It's still another similarity though. What if there's something sinister going on at that restaurant? We have to go check it out!"

"But we still have no idea how people are being infected."

"Which is why Kim and I are going to check this place out," Lindsay reasoned.

"You are missing the obvious," Sam pointed out. "Bill's right. We have no idea what is causing the infection. If whatever it is happens at the restaurant, there could be something in the food, or the water, or even just the air. Or they might be abducting people right out of the restaurant. If you go in there, there's no way you can guarantee you won't be infected."

Kim jumped in. "So we don't go inside. We do a stakeout instead. We find somewhere we can sit and watch and we look at who is going in and out. If there is something sinister about this restaurant then there are probably going to be lots of the infected coming and going. If the restaurant thing is just a coincidence, there won't be."

"That's a good plan, Kim," Lindsay said, agreeing with her friend. "Of course, if we do figure out the restaurant is involved, we probably will still need to go inside sooner or later."

"Preferably after we figure out how to keep ourselves from being turned into those freaks," Kim added with a shudder.


End file.
